Wither With Me

CHAPTER 5 - THREAT

'Shut up... Leave me alone...'

[Of course you are. On your own, you can only curl up and pray. Pray that you get to live another day. Pray that you don't get hurt again.]

'Please... Stop... Get out, leave, get out...!'

[Some things never change.]

...

A sudden impact brought Nora back to reality. Drowned deeply in her thoughts, she had run into William, who had stopped walking right at the edge of the rooftop.

"What the hell are you doing!? I told you to stay alert...!" he complained.

"A-Ah...! I'm sorry...!"

"Seriously, pull yourself together... We've arrived."

"Ah? But, I don't see anything special around..." she said, while looking at the surroundings..

"Look down." William pointed his finger down at the street.

As Nora got closer to the edge, she leaned forward and looked down, not sure what to expect. However, as soon as she set her eyes on the balconies below, she noticed right away. The building looked like another apartment complex, similar to their own. A peculiar glint of sunlight reflecting off the object gave away its position. It was a couple of levels below the rooftop, on the third floor. The balcony contained a fancy glass table with what looked like a laptop on top of it, along with some other electronics. And there, hopefully intact, was a portable solar panel.

She remembered the conversation she had with William earlier during the morning, before they left the shelter.

######

"So... We're gonna go look for a solar panel?"

William was leading her through several corridors, up to a room in the top floor. The place looked like an ordinary apartment that had been refurbished and transformed into some kind of management office. Although dark, Nora could tell the room was full of lockers and shelves covered in books and documents, along with lots of random tools and utensils. There were also food reserves stored in there, neatly piled up inside crates in a corner. They weren't plentiful though.

"Exactly. The gate you all used to enter the building, the cellphones I use to lure hordes away and move around the city, traps around the building, lighting, appliances... This entire shelter depends on that thing to function." he explained as he flicked the light switch.

"I see... That makes sense. I assume you've been using one so far? What happened? Did it stop working?"

William kept a moment of silence. He stared at her, as if measuring his words. Nora didn't know what to make of it, but didn't comment on it either.

"It got busted, beats me how. Thankfully, there's several car batteries rigged up as emergency energy storage, but those will eventually run out. We need a replacement for the panel, otherwise this building might stop being safe."

There was a table in the center of what used to be the bedroom. A map of the city was spread on top of it, full of markings and scribbles. William pointed at one specific building block, at the other side of a nearby river.

"Here. Several weeks ago I passed through this area while taking care of unrelated business, and managed to spot a suitable replacement in a balcony. It's quite rare to spot one of these, to be honest, but I couldn't afford to take a detour and grab it at the time."

It wasn't that far away, but she somehow knew it wouldn't be easy to get there. If it was, William himself would've probably gotten it already.

"There's no guarantee the panel will still be at the same spot where I saw it." he added, as he approached a nearby locker and started gathering some supplies onto a backpack. "I don't frequent the other side of the river too much, mainly because of the dangers involved in crossing the river itself. We're likely to find unlooted buildings in the area. So, even if we don't manage to get the solar panel, we shouldn't come back empty-handed."